It is known to provide patient identification bracelets joined end-to-end in roll form so that such bracelets may be fed through a printer, such as a direct thermal printer or a thermal transfer printer. Following imprinting, each bracelet is separated from the roll and fitted about a patient's wrist or ankle. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,426 discloses a roll of tape of uniform width which may be fed through a computerized printer, the tape being in the form of separable sections joined end-to-end. After each bracelet is printed and separated from the remainder of the tape, its opposite ends may be adhered together to form a closed loop.
Each bracelet of U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,426 is of uniform width. While such width may be necessary in the central imprintable area to accommodate medical information, it is believed to be clearly undesirable along the strap portion of the bracelet because it reduces conformability, is visually objectionable, and is often likely to cause patient discomfort.
While bracelets are known that have relatively wide information-receiving portions and narrow strap portions (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,914,843, 5,581,924, 3,467,246), such bracelets have generally not been provided in roll form for use with machine printers because reliability and effectiveness of printer operations require tape of substantially uniform width. A possible alternative might be to provide a tape of uniform width with removable portions that could be detached from each side and discarded after the imprinting step; however, such procedures would tend to be time consuming and would largely offset the advantages conferred by automated processing. If, for example, the bracelet of U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,843 originated from a roll in which such bracelets were arranged in end-to-end series along a tape of uniform width, then users, following the printing of the bracelets of such a roll, would be required to grasp and strip away narrow waste areas along opposite sides of the strap portion of each bracelet in addition to separating the ends of successive bracelets of the series.
One aspect of this invention therefore lies in the recognition that such disadvantages may be eliminated or greatly reduced by providing separable bracelets in tape form with each bracelet being asymmetrical in shape. More specifically, each bracelet has an imprintable portion extending the full width of the tape and relatively narrow strap and tab portions offset at opposite ends of the imprintable portion. The strap and tab portions are aligned along one side edge of the tape, leaving relatively wide and easily graspable and removable waste sections extending only along the opposite side edge of the tape.
Such a construction yields significant advantages. When the waste sections are removed, each bracelet has relatively narrow strap and tab portions that compared to a machine-imprintable band of uniform width, improve its appearance and make it more comfortable to wear. Removal of the waste sections is facilitated because they extend along only one side of the tape and are relatively wide, approximating the width of the strap portions themselves, and are therefore easily grasped for removal. Further, because of their substantial width, each waste section may be provided with a sensor opening of the type used by conventional tape printers for controlling the automatic advancement and location of tape through the machines. Such openings in no way weaken the final bracelets because the sensor openings are not located in their strap portions but instead are disposed along the waste sections that are discarded after the tapes have been printed.